Star Witness

by Lisa Phillips

  Aaron raised his voice. “Hey, man, what’s up?”

  “What’s up?” The voice through the phone was low and tough, and crackled a bit. “You bring my fiancée along for the ride when you have mercenaries and cops after you? Are you crazy?”

  “I didn’t know the cops would be there.”

  “Sabine can’t show up on anyone’s radar. Ever. You know that.”

  Mackenzie studied the two of them in the front seats. Sabine held out the phone, her cheeks an endearing shade of pink as she said, “I kept a low profile. This isn’t Aaron’s fault.”

  Aaron sighed. “Mackenzie was kidnapped and Eric couldn’t get away. There was no one else, and it turned out Sabine was on the case already.”

  “Yeah, she and I already talked about that. Maybe you guys should start a business, make all the car chases and gunfights official. I’ll be your secretary.”

  Aaron snorted. Mackenzie couldn’t imagine what a guy with a voice this gruff would look like making coffee and typing up invoices.

  “Were you just bored, was that it, Aaron? Looking for another thrill since you’re on medical leave?”

  Sabine sighed. “Doug—”

  “Listen—” Aaron hit the turn signal so hard Mackenzie thought it might break. “Sabine saved Mackenzie’s life. We needed help. More now, since Eric’s been arrested. Mackenzie and I are going after the leak.”

  There was a big sigh over the line. “Sabine, stay in Phoenix. My flight leaves in an hour, so I’ll be there tonight. I’ll call my lawyer, too. We’ll do everything we can for Eric. Aaron, just keep Mackenzie safe, and we’ll talk later, okay?”

  “Nothing like having cops on your tail to keep the mercenaries at bay.”

  Doug laughed. “No doubt, brother. Now drop my fiancée off.”

  The line went dead.

  “I’m really sorry.” Except it sounded as if Sabine was laughing.

  Aaron smiled at Sabine. “He was like that before you. He’s just worried, that’s all.”

  Mackenzie watched Sabine smirk. “What is with this new and improved Aaron, who’s all understanding and compassionate? I don’t get it. Where’d you go? Where’s the smooth-talking designer-clothes-wearing guy who used to be so shallow?”

  “Ouch, Sabine.”

  “I know it was bad. I know—well, I’d need longer than this to check the pulse of how you’re doing and where you’re at, but I think maybe this time off might have done you good.”

  “Seriously?” His brow had crinkled and he didn’t look pleased. “There was nothing good about what happened. Now I just want to forget it and try to salvage what’s left of my career.”

  Sabine sat back in her seat. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Aaron blew out a breath and pulled into a supermarket parking lot. “Where are you going to go now?”

  Sabine was silent for a minute and then sighed. “Don’t worry about me. Like Doug said, we’ll help Eric any way we can until this clears.”

  Aaron nodded.

  Then Sabine said, “And don’t worry about the colonel, either. He knows what happened wasn’t your fault. Franklin is alive, and the guys will come around.”

  Aaron’s jaw flexed as though he was grinding his teeth. Mackenzie watched the byplay between them. She’d had hints before now that something had happened to Aaron. This wasn’t just about his shoulder injury; it seemed as though something more had gone on. And Sabine knew what it was.

  If she pressed him, would he open up to her? He’d inferred she didn’t need to know all the details of his life to trust him, but she couldn’t help wanting to see if she might be able to make it better. Only that would make Aaron a project, just like all the kids in the center. Did she want that to define their friendship?

  Being his counselor was not a good idea. She might forever define their relationship as something she didn’t want it to be. She might have a degree, but she wasn’t a licensed therapist.

  Something had to change for him. He seemed so torn up about whatever it was that he lashed out when anyone tried to tend the wound that was inside him. And now he was channeling the anger, the pain of...whatever it was, into fighting for his brother. She could see it in his eyes, in the way he held back, protecting himself. If the wound was too fresh, it explained why he hadn’t told her.

  Mackenzie got out when Sabine did and gave her a hug. Sabine squeezed her as though they were long-lost friends, and Mackenzie prayed that when this was over they could become that.

  “Take care of him.”

  Mackenzie pulled back. Sabine was serious. “He needs taking care of?”

  “More than he knows or would be willing to admit, ever. But he needs someone like you, Mackenzie. Someone who will see past the wet, angry kitty to the scarred heart underneath that wants to be loved. Just watch out for the claws.”

  Mackenzie didn’t know whether to laugh or get mad at her description of Aaron. “I’m not sure that’s exactly how it is...but okay.”

  Sabine laughed and hugged her again. “Trust me. You’re exactly what he needs.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “After what he’s been through, you’re perfect. Like fresh air.”

  Mackenzie wasn’t completely convinced, but she was willing to trust this woman.

  Aaron’s door opened. Mackenzie looked back in time to see him scowl at them over the roof of the car. “If you’re done having girl bonding time, can we go? There are people trying to kill us.”

  As if she could forget.

  “’Bye, Sabine.”

  “Take care.”

  Mackenzie climbed in the front seat and buckled up. “So where to?”

  Aaron huffed out a breath. “Let’s just get on this. We’ll start with Eric’s partner.”

  Mackenzie wanted to ask how his shoulder was, since he had his hand in his lap and wasn’t using it to drive. Did it hurt? But she kept her mouth shut, figuring the timing wasn’t right to start her campaign to tame the angry kitty.

  The corners of her mouth curled up. Aaron looked at her and did a double take. “What’s funny?”

  “I’ll tell you later. But first, answer me this. Why Eric’s partner that he mentioned?”

  Aaron shrugged what she now knew was his good shoulder. “Eric seemed to think there was something there worth looking into. So until Sabine sends me all the info on the people he works with, it’s a place to start, at least. And it’s better than sitting here while Eric’s in jail.”

  THIRTEEN

  Mackenzie shifted in her seat beside him. They were parked outside a modest adobe house in the suburb of Scottsdale. The sun beat down on the hood of the car; just another day in Arizona. Her eyes were on the house, same as his.

  He frowned at the back of her head. “Are you sure you want to do this today? You did get kidnapped this morning.”

  “I said I did. I wasn’t lying. We have to help Eric.”

  Aaron rolled his eyes. He was exhausted, and his shoulder hurt something fierce. Rest would strengthen them both for the fight ahead. But no, Mackenzie didn’t want to take a break. It bothered him, but why not admit to himself they had something in common, at least?

  Why couldn’t she see that he wanted to help Eric just as much as her? More, since Eric was his brother.

  They were all tied up in this now. Sooner or later he was going to be arrested for kidnapping Mackenzie, and Eric would go to jail. But still, he was trying to be gracious. This wasn’t her fight. She needed to concentrate on Carosa’s threat to her life and let Aaron, Doug and Sabine help Eric.

  “I just don’t know why we can’t leave it until tomorrow. It won’t hurt anything to wait.” She really did look as though she wanted to take a nap, and his shoulder was screaming with fire from having h
is arms restrained. Hers had to hurt, also.

  “It’ll hurt if more people’s lives are ruined.”

  She rubbed at the marks on her wrists from the ties the mercenaries had used on her. His were the same, so when Aaron reached over and grabbed her hand, they matched. Her fingers were warm, her skin softer than anything he’d felt before. “Don’t rub. You need to let it heal.”

  He should have bought some cream for her wrists, or a bandage, when he was picking up a prepay phone. Why didn’t he do that? He sighed. He could be a real jerk sometimes.

  “Are you okay?” Aaron studied her, but she didn’t look at him. She just kept her eyes on the house they were watching. “My brother is innocent. Eric’s record will speak for him and we’ll help any way we can. You don’t have to take on his cause, Mackenzie. You have enough to deal with.”

  He didn’t want to leave his brother hanging, but sitting here with her, Aaron had to fight the urge to buy two plane tickets and get her out of there. Run. Never look back. It wouldn’t solve either of their problems, but it sounded good anyway.

  Mackenzie never answered. She just pulled up the email on Aaron’s brand-new unregistered phone and read aloud, “1485 North Harrell is the home of Arnold Schweitzer, U.S. Marshal for the past fifteen years. Forty-seven years old. He’s married, wife’s name is Marcy and the kids are Helen, who’s twelve, and Amy, nine. Now, tell me why we’re sitting on the street four doors down from Mr. Schweitzer’s house.”

  “It’s called a stakeout.”

  “Okay...”

  “You’ve never watched a cop show?”

  She looked over at him. “I don’t have a TV.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Not everyone sits glued to a screen for hours on end. I do it enough at work with the computer. It’s the last thing I want when I’m home.”

  “So you just sit around until bedtime?”

  Mackenzie rolled her eyes. “No, I read. I had a five-thousand-piece puzzle that I was working on, but it was taking me a while because most nights I work late at the center.”

  Aaron pulled the phone over so he could see the file. He scanned down the page. “Eric didn’t have anything he could pinpoint without an unsubstantiated illegal search into the life of a man he’s supposed to trust. Sabine looked into his financial records, and there’s nothing fishy, but at this point Eric’s instinct is the best we’ve got.”

  “So...what are we doing now?”

  Aaron glanced up at the roof of the car and sighed. “We’re observing. Rule one of investigation is gathering information. The second is what we’re doing right now. Looking for details to add to what we know.”

  “You mean like how the school bus came by and neither of the girls got off?”

  “What?”

  Mackenzie motioned to the house. “Why don’t we go ask the neighbors why Marcy might be gone when her car is in the driveway, and why the girls didn’t come home from school?”

  “Fine.” Aaron sighed. “You stay put, and I’ll go talk to the neighbors.”

  “But if we split up, then we can cover twice as many houses.”

  “Which we’re not going to do, because you need to rest. There’s no point in overdoing it and not having time to regroup and get your strength back.”

  She looked over at him, her eyes narrowed. “Sounds like that’s coming from experience.”

  Aaron shrugged. “I’ve been a soldier for a long time.”

  “So you’ve been injured?”

  “Mostly fractures to fingers, toes, stuff like that. Busted ribs, concussions.” He smoothed out a crease in his jeans. “Some injuries that were...worse.”

  “Like you were shot? Is that what happened to your shoulder?”

  He zeroed in on the tone in her voice. “Why are you so fired up to talk about this? It’s not fun. I’d think you would want to discuss anything else in the world than guns and war.”

  Hurt flashed on her face. “I was just making conversation.”

  Aaron sighed. “Let’s go talk to the neighbors.”

  It didn’t bode well how easily he was giving in to her just for the sake of avoiding that conversation. He badly needed to shore up his conviction and not let the pain in her eyes get to him. But it was tough. He had to remember this was about Eric, and Mackenzie was just a by-product. Yeah, right. Her death would be collateral damage, and he was trained to avoid that. That was why he was here. Doug and Sabine were perfectly capable of helping Eric clear his name.

  By the time he got around to her door she’d already climbed out, and they walked together across the street. The neighbor’s house was sun-bleached yellow with vinyl siding and a lawn of brown grass between the front door and the street. Blinds in the front window were pulled back, showing a wide-screen TV tuned to kids cartoons.

  Aaron rang the bell and pandemonium erupted in the form of kids screaming and crying at the prospect of visitors. A woman answered the door with a stain on her T-shirt, her hair in a ponytail and no makeup. She squinted at the bright light outside. “Help you?”

  “Is there anything you can tell us about the Schweitzers next door?”

  The woman’s eyes darkened. “Who wants to know? You guys cops or what? I’m not answering no questions to cops. I know my rights.”

  Mackenzie nudged him aside and got between Aaron and the woman. “It’s nothing like that. We’re friends of Marcy. We were supposed to visit with her today, but we must have missed her and Helen and Amy.”

  The woman corralled a toddler boy trying to crawl out the door between her feet. She looked back at Aaron and Mackenzie and sighed. “Helen and Amy come by after school most days to help me with the kids, unless they have soccer or whatnot. A week ago she texts me. Going to her sister’s, she says. Family emergency or some such. And what am I supposed to do? I’ve got a business to run. Who’s going to help me, huh?”

  “We must have been mistaken, then, got our wires crossed or something. Thank you for your time.” Aaron backed up, taking Mackenzie with him by her elbow.

  Mackenzie waved at a couple of the kids. “Sorry to bother you.”

  When they reached the street, Mackenzie pulled her elbow out of his grip. Aaron snagged her hand with his, his mouth opening to say something, but when the warmth of her fingers folded around his, all thoughts left his head. This wasn’t good. There weren’t supposed to be any feelings between them. Aaron dropped her hand and ignored the glance she shot him. “Okay, so that was a pretty good idea. Now we know the wife and daughters went to her sister’s, if we can believe it. We need to check the story and focus our attention on old Arnold.”

  She nodded and they climbed in the car.

  Aaron pulled around the first corner and parked out of sight of Schweitzer’s house. “Stay here.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Where are you going?”

  “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

  “What if you’re not?”

  He looked her in the eye. “I will be.”

  “Aaron—”

  He shut the car door. Who knew how long it would be before the neighbor saw the news and called the police to report their whereabouts? If he needed to check out Schweitzer’s house, he had to do it fast.

  * * *

  Mackenzie cranked the air-conditioning to max and slouched down in the seat so no one noticed her. Aaron had disappeared between two houses. A couple of doors up from the car an older teenage boy mowed a lawn, his shirt ringed with sweat. Across the street, two preteen girls lay out on their front lawn on deck chairs watching the show. Life was going on as normal. A car drove by, a low-to-the-ground model with a long hood.

  Mackenzie sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes shut. The sound of the engine diminished as it got farther away. It wasn’t rational to be scared of every little thing just because
there were a lot people looking for them. She couldn’t live her life in fear. Not anymore. Wasn’t there something in the Bible about that? Not being anxious or something.

  The numbers on the dash clock clicked five minutes, and she watched for Aaron’s return. Alone, Mackenzie could admit that attraction had stirred. She wanted to get to know him better and see where it could lead. But while they had been close in proximity, him comforting her when she needed it, he still seemed so far away and removed from her.

  Mackenzie had plenty of secrets of her own, but for the right man she was more than willing to open up. Could Aaron say the same? She wasn’t sure.

  At the six-minute mark, she had grabbed the door handle, ready to go after him, when another car, high-end and not like she would have thought a government employee would drive, pulled around the corner. Mackenzie lifted up an inch and checked out the driver. It was the same guy whose picture had been on the email: Schweitzer.

  She slid back down in the seat.

  There was no way to warn Aaron that Schweitzer was coming. If he found Aaron in his house, he would surely shoot him, especially when he saw who it was. Or he would arrest Aaron for kidnapping her, and then Mackenzie would be on her own.

  She opened the door just as Aaron jogged around the corner.

  “What are you doing?” He hissed, “Shut that door.”

  “Schweitzer came back. I thought he was going to kill you.”

  Aaron climbed in. “Buckle up. Now.”

  She waited until he buckled his seat belt and then said, “What took you so long? I was worried. I really thought he was going to find you in there and kill you.”

  “Seriously?” He pulled away from the curb. “I wouldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t leave you on your own.”

  “I was worried about you.”

  “Because you’d get left alone.”

  “I would have been fine.” Hopefully. Mackenzie crossed her arms. “Am I not allowed to worry about you?”

  “Don’t know why you would. Most people wouldn’t think I was worth it.”